Reporter's Notebook

In a blog post lamenting the demise of COI, Pete Stevenson, the creative director of The Edge Picture Company, said: “We’ll look back and say that the COI was the worst way for the public sector to communicate except for all the other ways that were tried after it was closed down.” Indeed many wager that it won’t be long until some bright spark in the Cabinet Office hits on the idea of forming an Office of Centralised Information to handle procurement, manage projects when needed ...

The New Scientist reports that two people have successfully steered a virtual spacecraft by combining the power of their thoughts – and their efforts were far more accurate than one person acting alone. It speculates that one day groups of people hooked up to brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) might work together to control complex robotic and telepresence systems, maybe even in space. BCI systems use EEG – which is commonly employed in neuromarketing studies. The researchers ...

The Market Research Society, publishers of Research Magazine and Research-live.com, want you to shock them. Next year’s conference is titled Shock of the New and it sets out to explore where research is going, how society is evolving and where technology is heading.

Researchers will be familiar with the myriad ways in which the act of asking a question can influence the answer that a respondent gives. Question phrasing, question ordering, interviewer bias. But have you ever encountered the “font effect”?

Apple Insider has a report from Tuesday’s Apple vs Samsung court hearing in which senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller took the stand to declare: “We don’t use any customer surveys, focus groups, or typical things of that nature. That ...

The Red Dragons of Cardiff City have risen from the flames they were consigned to. In what can only be described as a double-U-turn, the football club’s owners backtracked on their decision not to rebrand the club and have announced that as of next season, the team will play in red shirts bearing a new badge featuring a red dragon.

Sports broadcaster ESPN is one of the companies that has been pioneering cross-media measurement. Findings shared by the firm’s research bosses at the ARF’s Re:think conference in New York showed what can be learned from understanding media usage on multiple platforms, and how it changes the firm’s relationship with advertisers.

The success of internet radio service Pandora is testament to the power of personalisation. Founder and CEO Tim Westergren told the ARF’s Re:think conference in New York how the company has managed to reach nearly 50 million listeners and a market capitalisation of $1.75bn.

Biometric data gives researchers the power to measure emotional reactions. But ABC TV’s Justin Fromm reminded delegates at the ARF’s Re:think conference in New York of the importance of using these tools alongside more conventional methods.

Researchers like to think they can help spur creativity, but creative professionals don’t always agree. So what’s the key to this elusive quality? Jonah Lehrer, a contributing editor for Wired, has published a book on the subject.

The theme of this year’s ARF Re:think conference in New York is change. The research business is on the brink of transformation, said the ARF’s president and CEO Bob Barocci. So what are agencies doing about it?